Russia: Lenta plans to open 80 new stores in 2017

Russian retailer Lenta has announced plans to open 80 new stores in 2017 and to explore entry into new regions of the country, including Siberia.

According to European Supermarket Magazine, the retailer plans to focus on the supermarket format, as 50 of the new openings are set to be supermarkets and the other 30 hypermarkets.

Shortly after unveiling its expansion plans, Lenta announced the opening of its first hypermarket in Shakhty, Rostov Oblast, and later its first supermarket in the Siberian capital Novosibirsk.

In total, the retailer is planning to add 200,000 sq m of selling space, and to invest about 40 billion RUB ($693 million) in capital expenditure in 2017. Looking longer term, Lenta expects to add 150,000 – 200,000sqm of hypermarket space each year until 2020, with long-term capacity for 400 more hypermarkets.

Lenta is the fifth largest retail chain in sales in Russia, and the largest hypermarket chain in terms of sales space. By 2020 the chain aims to be in the top three multi-format food retailers in Russia and the country’s largest hypermarket chain.